The Buzz Report

Will Craigslist killer kill Craigslist?

Buzz Report takes on the Craigslist killer and hacker attacks on everything from fighter jets to MSN New Zealand.

3:47 / 24 April 2009

Transcript

Hi, I'm Molly Wood, and welcome to the Buzz Report � the show about the tech news that
everybody�s talking about. This week, it�s hackers, the Craigslist killer, and � well, that�s pretty
much it. But let�s begin with the Gadget of the Week.
Wednesday was Earth Day, which led to a green frenzy that CNET was not immune to. Check out
our new Green Show on CNET TV. But this week�s Gadget of the Week is designed to show you
that you can go green without having to go, let�s say, hippie-dippie wimpy. For lack of a better
phrase.
It�s the CNET Editors� Choice HP Firebird 803 with VoodooDNA. It�s got a gorgeous design, lots of
gaming firepower � despite its lack of upgradeable graphics. And its power consumption is
about half that of the competition � in some cases, three times less. So, you can frag away on
Crysis AND save the earth. See? It�s good for everyone.
Ok, now for the news. The one tech story everyone really IS talking about this week: The
Craigslist killer. Police arrested Phillip Markoff and charged him with murder, armed robbery,
and kidnapping in the death of a woman who posted ads for erotic massage on Craigslist. He�s
also implicated in two other robberies.
All that happened right on the heels of the usual Craigslist prostitution stings, and officials are
now calling on Craigslist, AGAIN, to work harder to police its sex posts.
Craigslist has had a hands-off policy about this for YEARS now. Only last year did they start
cooperating with police and requiring a credit card and small fee for erotic services postings.
They donate that money to charity, but many analysts think the personals and sex posts account
for most of Craigslist�s revenue.
Now, say what you will about Craigslist�s moral duties here � what�s amazing to me is that, from
a business perspective, craigslist would just let craigslist become such a seedy neighborhood! I,
for one, am going to go back to buying my gray-market TVs in shady back alleys like I used to.
Craigslist gives me the creeps.
Ok, now on to way happier news. Not. Hackers are going CRAZY this week! First came reports
that crackers broke into the Pentagon�s 300 billion-dollar fighter jet program, AND have even
hacked the Air Force air-traffic-control system. Pentagon officials said no critical data was stolen
about the jets � as if they would actually tell us. All signs point to China.
Officials also reported that they�re looking for hackers in the Ukraine, hoping to break up a
massive botnet made up of 1.9 million infected PCs. It�s not Conficker, which has its own 3
million PCS. It�s something else entirely. Super.
And two Symantec researchers say they�ve uncovered the first serious Trojan horse aimed at
infecting Macs. So, you Apple people? Not safe either.
Frankly, after all that, I found it merely amusing that New Zealand hackers had taken down the
country�s MSN homepage and replaced it with a picture of Bill Gates being hit in the face with a
pie. Of course, the photo probably dropped a payload on those machines and started a whole
new botnet that�s bound to destroy the world. Super.
Luckily, most of the Internet wasn�t as focused on all this bad news as I was this week � because,
after all, something truly newsworthy happened. OPRAH got on TWITTER!!! Oh, Twitter. You
virus-vector waiting to happen, you.
And that�s the Buzz Report for this week, everyone. I�m Molly Wood, and thanks for watching.

Coming up next

Buzz Report Animation Reel

Best of the Buzz 2007

Buzz Report: Best of 2006

Seven years of Buzz Report: a retrospective

Buzz Report: Blooper reel

Farewell, Buzz Report. Fare thee well, Lumia 900!

HP Spectre haunts us with its beauty

Higgs iBoson, now with universe-expanding display

AT&T's latest evil idea: it's evil

Samsung Galaxy Note: phablet phever?

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